Loyalty: A Borderlands Epic
by Jimmy Dean 4 the Beans
Summary: Takes place right before the quest 'Hunting The Firehawk'. Maya is pregnant with Axton's baby, but when a routine outing takes a turn for the worse, it's Axton against Pandora in his desperate attempt to get back to his lover.
1. Chapter 1: Disaster

The two Vault Hunters stood over their latest kills, confident that that was the last of their assailants. Axton smirked as he picked over the weapons dropped by the raiders and nomads that had previously inhabited Frostburn Canyon, while Maya stood guard.

As he was examining a rifle with a bayonet and drum magazine, Maya yelled the feared words. "Axton, look out! Badass!" He looked up just in time to see a Badass Psycho crash through a solid-looking piece of ice. They opened up on it with their assault rifles, but the Psycho was not to be stopped. It swung a piece of piping at Axton, knocking him on his back and shattering his shield. He tried to struggle to his feet, but found he was too winded to do so.

From his vantage point in the snow, he watched Maya throw a grenade that detonated in the Psycho's face, putting it down. She smiled when she saw him struggling to get up.

As she moved to helped him up, two things happened at once. One, Axton saw a marauder with a sniper rifle standing on top of the ridge. Two, the bullet went through Maya's neck, shading the snow around her a deep crimson.

Axton was instantly on his feet, finishing the bandit with a swift headshot from his own sniper. Rushing to his longtime friend, lover, and confidant, he knew instantly that the wound was fatal. Still, he tried to staunch the flow of blood the best he could.

Her voice stopped him. "Hey." she groaned. He looked up. Her skin was an alabaster white, making the blue tattoos that started at the left side of her collarbone and ran down her left side stand out disturbingly. "W-when I die...promise m-me...you won't b-be bitt-" she coughed up blood. "-Bitter. J-just stay like y-you are." Axton took her hand. She smiled weakly. He squeezed. "You're not going to die. I'll get you back to Sanctuary, Dr. Zed will patch you up. We'll stay in Sanctuary, we'll raise a family, we'll be happy, you know?" As he finished, he realized that she had gone limp.

He woke up covered in cold sweat, the image of Maya laying in a pile of bloody snow still frozen in his mind's eye. He looked for what woke him, and found Maya standing over him. "You okay? You were shaking and whimpering. Do you need the Doc?"

He looked at her, particularly the barely noticeable bump in her abdomen indicating that she was four months pregnant. "I'm fine. Bad dream." He told her, not exactly lying, yet not exactly telling the truth, either.

"Mmm. Okay." she slipped back into the bed next to him. "You know, you've been having nightmares a lot lately. Maybe you should see the Doc." she told him.

He considered it.

He _had_ been having nightmares more often since Maya had gotten pregnant. He remembered the day that she came back from Dr. Zed's and told him she was knocked up with their first child. He had been so happy. But in the back of his mind there was the little voice that told him that something was going to happen to her. That if anything _did _happen to her, his unborn child would suffer the same fate.

He got up, dressed, and took a last look at Maya's supine form, her chest slowly moving up and down in the throes of sleep. As he moved to the door, he heard her start to snore, bringing a smile to his face.

As he walked to the doctor's place, Claptrap, whom never seemed to stop bugging people, even at one in the morning, rolled up. "Wassup, minion? Never seen you out this late. What's up? The other minion having the baby?" "Jesus, I hope not." Axton grinned. "It'll be a few more months yet, Clappy. I'm just going to see Zed. See if he can stop me from having these nightmares." "Oh. Well, see ya!" he rolled off, muttering dubstep beats under his breath.

Axton walked past Marcus's shop, the Black Market, and Mad Moxxxi's Bar on his way to Dr. Zed's 'hospital'. When he got there, he knocked on the door. Zed opened it a moment later, grumbling under his breath. He instantly brightened when he saw Axton. "Hey! Maya's not having the baby yet, is she?" "No, but I need something to help me with these nightmares." "Sure! Come on in and lay on the table." Zed led Axton to the operating table.

Axton lay on the table, trying to ignore the bloodstains and splatters all over the walls. "Now, cover yourself with this." Zed instructed, giving Axton a blanket. Confused, he did as he was told, and Zed punched him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

When he woke up, Axton was still on the table, still covered by the blanket. He opened his eyes to see Zed standing over him. "Sleep good?" Axton scowled. "Er...did I ever tell you I don't have a doctorate?" "Might have mentioned it." Axton snapped back.

On the way home, he stopped by Marcus's shop and bought a new combat outfit for Maya, a cool purple number with a yellow stripe down the left side. He figured she would think it was garish, but it was pretty neat. He knew Salvador would had loved it. Sadly, Salvador and Zero had both perished on that fateful day on the train, when Handsome Jack had tried to off all of them with a rigged train car that was wired with at least a ton of plastic explosives. His plan half-succeeded, killing Salvador and Zero, and nearly Axton himself. Only a split-second intervention on Maya's part had saved him.

When he got home, he was greeted by a sight that made him shudder in horror. Maya was standing in the foyer, grinning at him. "Skag bacon?" she asked hopefully. He raised his eyebrows at her, sighed, and grabbed his pack off the hook on the wall. As he walked out of Sanctuary, he muttered a single sentence.

"Damn cravings..."

Later, after finishing half a dozen skags, he figured he had enough meat to appease his girlfriend and started back to Sanctuary. As he headed back, he saw something that made his blood run cold. Sanctuary was rising off the ground, preparing to speed off. "Scooter! What's up? Why the hell is Sanctuary in the air?! I'm in Three Horns, for Christ's sake!" "Aw, jeez, ya are? I thought you was in the city! Can't set her down now though. We need to get out of the area STAT! Jack's launched a nuke at us! The city's shields can't take a hit like that! Listen, we're headed to Bloodbane Gulch, see ya there! CATCH-A-RIDE!" With that, the city sped off into the distance. Axton felt weak. Maya...

Then he saw the bomb. Speeding towards the spot where Sanctuary had been moments before, was a yellow missile. When it hit, a small mushroom cloud billowed up, engulfing everything that had been Sanctuary. He sank down. Bloodbane Gulch... That was over three hundred miles away. "Well, better start moving then." were his last words before getting into the drivers seat of his light runner, which was parked a little ways away, under some brush.

As he got onto the remains of the road leading to Bloodbane Gulch, he thought of Maya, of Moxxi, of Zed, of Marcus, and even of Claptrap. He was getting back to all of them, and may God help any raider, nomad, or creature that tried to stop him.


	2. Chapter 2: Companionship

Chapter 2 : Mad Moxxi

Axton tore through the tundra of Three Horns in his light runner, determined to get back to Maya. Letting his thoughts wander towards her, he didn't see the Bullymong until it was too late. It slammed into the side, sending the small vehicle careening onto its side, and Axton was flung from the driver's seat. It collided with a large outcropping of rock.

Axton looked at the Bullymong. It was huge, maybe ten feet tall, and was hefting a large chunk of rock, preparing to throw it. Axton pulled out his rifle and let loose four bullets. The thing seemed to not feel them, winging the slab of rock at a speed too great to avoid. Axton's shield took most of the impact, but he still heard a nasty crack in his chest.

Through the pain, he threw a grenade at the Bullymong. He leaped away to avoid the explosion, landing on top of the remains of the runner. Seeing an opportunity, Axton shot the fuel tank, causing the runner and Bullymong to go up in a massive firestorm. Peering through the dust, he saw the Bullymong limp off. He stuck a rejuvenator in his chest and winced. He hated Pandora in more ways than one.

Picking up his gun, he began walking in a hasty manner towards the nearest Catch-A-Ride station. As he neared it, he heard a sneeze. Pulling out his sidearm, he turned towards the sound of the sneeze. That sounded like...Moxxi. If anyone could make a sneeze sound that sexy, it was her. But it wasn't Moxxi, she was still on Sanctuary.

But still, it sounded hella like her.

Moving towards some shrubbery, he moved some of the leaves aside with the bayonet on his gun. "Moxxi?" he called out tentatively, feeling dumb. "That you, Axton? I thought you were one of those bandits." a seductive and ultimately familiar voice purred back. Then she emerged, looking as sexy as ever, if not more so, as she was holding a red Hyperion shotgun. "What are you doing out of the city? I thought you stayed in there all the time." "Well, normally I do, shuga, but then again I can go skag hunting too, can't I?" "Well, I guess so, but talk about poor timing. Damn!" they both laughed. "Well, at least we have a common goal." he continued when they were finished.

They proceeded to get to the Catch-A-Ride machine, ordered another light runner, and set off again, Axton manning the gun, Moxxi driving. As they drove along, they talked about all the good times they had in Sanctuary, from putting dead fruit flies in the pepper shakers to replacing Sir Hammerlock's iced tea with iced skag urine. The amazing thing was, he never seemed to notice.

After a while, they ran out of stories to tell. What followed was a long, awkward silence. Eventually, tundra gave out to stones and gravel, and nighttime began to descend. Parking the car, they set up the tent in Axton's survival pack and set up the thermal sleeping bag. Unfortunately, there was only one, so Axton and Moxxi were forced to share. As he lay next to Moxxi, Axton was overtaken by a wave of nostalgia. This was just like sleeping with Maya, although a little different. For one, Moxxi didn't snore, and also did this creepy thing where she snuggled up next to him, making for a very awkward situation. Thinking of Maya, Axton allowed himself to begin to think about that day on the train.

In their quest to find the vault and the riches it contained, they had stowed aboard the train in a pallet of Hyperion weapons. After being loaded onto the train, they had slipped out and proceeded to explore. After finding themselves ambushed by a group of GUN loaders, they had split up, defeated the loaders, and regrouped. Axton had breached the door to the next compartment, and there was a fake Handsome Jack with at least a ton of plastic explosives behind it. He would never forget Salvador's last words. 'Bet this'll really up the trains resale value.' Then the whole thing went sky high.

The distant howling of a skag snapped Axton back to reality. He listened, but heard nothing more, just Moxxi's mumbling "Mmm...that turns me on...hmm? Oh, yeah...right there..."

Finally, Axton fell into another nightmare. Maya, walking away from him. He had run to catch up with her, but she was always just out of reach, at least until the end. At last, he had caught up to her, but when he put a hand to her shoulder, she turned to face him. Axton was terrified by the sight that beheld him. Her face was a skull, her teeth set in a permanent grin, her empty eye sockets filled with a strange faint blue light. She had grabbed at him then, but he had dodged, and was now running for his life. But no matter how fast he ran, he could hear her getting closer, closer, closer...

He woke up then, a scream in his throat when he felt a hand on his shoulder. But it was just Moxxi, a look of concern on her face. "Damn, Axton, I heard you had been having hella bad dreams, but that was insane." Axton nodded, a film of sweat covering his face. "You wanna talk about it?" Moxxi prodded. Axton shook his head, still not trusting himself to speak. "Sure. I understand." she nodded, "But if it helps any..." she began removing her top.

They made love then, but it wasn't the same as with Maya. In the morning, they packed up camp and left in the runner. Axton was ashamed of himself, but he had had no more nightmares for the rest of the night. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he had been holding Moxxi when the two of them had gone to sleep. Things never seemed as bad when you had someone to face them with.

Later in the day, they encountered snow again. Axton was especially vigilant, not wanting to be jumped upon by the massive Bullymong again. But the snowy wastes were clear of all life, and eventually he grew complacent. After about another hour of driving, they encountered a large cave. Axton gave it no heed at first, but then he realized that there was a distress ECHO coming from inside.

He told Moxxi, and they turned around and zoomed back. Pulling up outside, they both jumped out and ran for the entrance. As they ran into the howling dark of the yawning maw of the cave, the sign outside read 'Frostburn Canyon'.


	3. Chapter 3: Firehawk

Chapter 3: The Firehawk

Axton drew into the cave, rifle up, ready to fire at anything that so much as twitched. Moxxi brought up in the rear, holding her shotgun at the ready as well. Moving further, they discovered a fork in the tunnels, as well as a crucified raider, arm pointing to the left path. They moved slowly, fully aware of the danger of traps in the narrow tunnels.

Suddenly, a Goliath burst out of a nearby tunnel, guns at the ready. It saw them about the same time they started pulling the triggers, filling the thing with armor-piercing rounds and flaming buckshot. Their magazines both gave out at about the same tine, so Axton threw out a Saber turret, ducked behind what meager cover there was with Moxxi. He noted how she was biting her lip and struggling to reload, then saw the bleeding gunshot wound on her left arm. "Stay back." he instructed, handing her a rejuvenator and leaping out of cover to spray the Goliath with lead again.

One of the bullets connected with the giant's helmet, knocking it off and exposing the head. The thing went into rage mode, the head spraying blood and snapping off, connected to the body only by the spinal column.

Axton backpedaled, firing as he went, and threw another Saber. It only served as a minor distraction, however, as the Goliath swatted it out of the air as easily as a person would a fly. Axton's clip ran dry, and he pulled out his sidearm, knowing it was hopeless, but the Goliath suddenly changed course and went straight for Moxxi.

Caught off guard, Moxxi only had time for a scream and a single blast of scattershot before it was upon her. As she raised the shotgun again, the Goliath snatched it away from her. Throwing it across the cave, the Goliath advanced. Knowing her handgun was useless against the monster, Moxxi closed her eyes and waited for the bone-shattering killing blow.

It never came. Axton charged towards the beast with his combat knife drawn. Taking a running leap, he hooked his foot into the Goliath's belt loop, landing on the things shoulders. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the spine with one hand, and with the one holding the knife, cut through it.

The effect was immediate. The remains of the Goliath toppled backwards, with Axton still riding on its shoulders. He landed clumsily, but manged to turn it into an elegant combat roll. Looking over at Moxxi, whom was still staring at the supine form of the Goliath, he started towards her. "Hey. You okay?" he asked gently. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just really thought I was going to eat it there for a sec. But, yeah, I'm good." Axton went on. "You're going to need a shield if you're going to hang around me. Fortunately, I've got one right here." he pulled off his pack. Rummaging through it, he told her "You're lucky he wasn't using a explosive weapon, because if he had, your arm would be gone right about now." Moxxi took the shield and activated it before they continued.

There was a strange deficiency of raiders in the cave, but bodies were everywhere. On some, the blood wasn't even dry, as Moxxi found out, as she stepped in some and proceeded to leave bloody high heel prints for the next hundred feet or so. Finally, they found themselves outside of a huge cave. Proceeding quietly and cautiously, they discovered why the outer regions featured such a placidity of raiders. They were all _here. _They appeared engaged in a huge firefight with a large glowing purple ball.

None of them noticed Axton or Moxxi as they entered. Axton used the distraction to throw out another Saber. The bandits noticed the deadly incoming shower of lead, and a few moved, but those who did were cut down by automatic rifle or incendiary buckshot fire. The Saber dealt with the rest.

"Thanks for the assist." an unfamiliar voice called out to them. They looked up to the central platform of the room and saw an attractive young woman maybe in her late twenties, russet hair swept off to one side. The thing that stood out the most about her, however, were the distinctive swirling blue tattoos that covered the left side of her body, starting at her collarbone and ending at her foot and hand.

Axton gazed at her. "You're a Siren, aren't you?" "Yeah. And if you're even thinking about the bounty, you can kiss your life goodbye." her pretty face turned stony. "No, no. My girlfriend's a Siren, too." "Right. As if. She's not a Siren." she said, gestating towards Moxxi. Choosing to ignore the last comment, he continued. "We're trying to get back to her. She's in Sanctuary." That caused her to raise her eyebrows. "Well, I can talk to my boyfriend. He runs Sanctuary. Roland. You know him?" "Yeah, I did a few jobs for him. Helped him keep the city's shields up. But I thought Scooter said that you had him. You're the Firehawk, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what those cult retards call me. My real name's Lilith. Hey, can you guys do me a favor? There's some Eridium on a table over there. Could you get it for me?" Axton ran over to the table and snagged the tiny chunk of Eridium. Taking it back to Lilith, he watched as she took it in her hands and crushed it. A surging pink mist came flowing out and engulfed Lilith.

Watching the cloud closely, They both jumped in surprise when Lilith did a double backflip out of the mist with an exhilarated whoop. They looked at her strangely when she rejoined them, meriting a "Tell you later. I don't have Roland, in which case Hyperion does. Which means we need to find him. Now."

Later, nearing the exit to Frostburn Canyon, Lilith said softly, "Wait here. I'm going to go see if I can get us some extra manpower." with that, she disappeared. In a few seconds, they heard shouting, but could not make out any words except for 'Firehawk'.

A moment later, they saw an odd-looking Psycho with flaming skulls mounted on spikes on his substantial armor, with Lilith walking beside. "Relax, hold your fire, he's-" "I am Incinerator Clayton, leader of The Children Of The Firehawk religion." he interrupted in a loud voice. Lilith shrugged. "They think I'm a god. Ah, well, it's a little nice having a small army ready to die on command for me, I guess." Axton shrugged. "The more the merrier, I guess. Here." he handed Clayton an incendiary TMP with a bayonet attachment on the front.

And so, the four companions headed out of Frostburn Canyon and out into Three Horns, awaiting the next segment of their journey.


End file.
